Dissipation of excess heat is frequently a major concern of designers of equipment. Electronic components, in particular, need to have methods of carrying away excess thermal energy or suffer unacceptable failure rates. As micro-miniaturization continues to compress more and more effective components into smaller and smaller volumes, the problems caused by retained heat become severe. Accordingly, finding ways to keep the components cool enough to maintain optimal operating conditions has become an area of significant inventive efforts.
One of the most popular methods utilized to dissipate heat is convection dissipation, especially via cooling fans in the vicinity of the components. In this method, the moving air carries thermal energy from the heated component and dissipates it to the ambient atmosphere. While this is sufficient for many purposes, it has been found that fan cooling, standing alone, is not enough provide the needed cooling for many circumstances.
Another commonly utilized method of heat dissipation utilizes a combination of conduction and radiation. Devices, known as "heatsinks" are adapted to mount in direct contact with the components such that the thermal energy may be conducted, in accordance with equilibrium principles, from the component to the heatsink device. Most heatsinks are then provided with substantial surface area not in contact with the component such that the conducted thermal energy can dissipate into the air. Many heatsink devices include dissipation fins of various configurations, while others rely principally on substantial mass to absorb the heat, especially transient heat.
One of the most effective approaches, especially in situations where components continually generate a relatively large amount heat which must be dissipated, is to combine heatsinks and fans. For this reason, some heatsinks are provided with attachment structures to allow fan mechanisms to be directly attached.
Among the prior art methods and devices which have been the subject of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,620,216, issued to Horvath; 5,003,429, issued to Baker, et al.; 5,031,072, issued to Malhi et al.; 5,166,775, issued to Bartilson; 5,133,403, issued to Yokono, et al.; and 5,304,846, issued to Azar, et al. Each of these examples uses a variety of configurations of heat dissipation geometries to optimize the dissipation of heat absorbed by a contact portion of the device from the associated component(s).
Among those prior patents which utilize some form of moving air and convection to dissipate the heat are U.S. Pat. No. 4,103,737, issued to Perkins, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,631, issued to Rippel.
As certain types of components have become more popular, the types of heatsink devices have become almost of secondary importance as to the manner in which the heat is dissipated. Instead, the nature of the contact with the component has become critical. Good thermal contact surfaces to facilitate conductive transfer are more and more important. Further, maintaining the contact without potential damage to the component and attaching the heatsink in smaller geometric volumes have become significant factors.
Accordingly, in addition to improved heat dissipation characteristics from the heatsink devices themselves, there remains a great deal of room for improvements in the fields of attachment of the heatsink device to the component.